Scholarship caps Lutheran wrestler’s difficult run

ROCKFORD — One after another, the obstacles rose in front of Caleb Micho.

But one after another, with the help of wrestling and a dedication to his studies, he overcame them.

Now, after accepting a Division I wrestling scholarship Monday to Colorado School of Mines, the Rockford Lutheran senior thinks there’s nothing out there that can keep him from reaching his goals.

“Everyone has had their obstacles that have popped up; their obstacles in life to deal with,” Micho said. “I’ve learned that you can either use them to get you going, or you can sit around and worry about it. I’m not one to sit around and dwell.”

Instead, he turned his attention to his favorite sport — where he went on to win a state title — and to his academic, where he earned straight-As throughout high school.

It was the perfect medicine.

“Wrestling gave me a purpose, and it made me want to be great at anything I did,” Micho said. “It made me want to be a great student. It made me want to be great, no matter what I was doing. I guess you could say it turned me into a super-competitive guy. But it’s made me super motivated, too.”

First he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) at the age of 2. Next came the stress-induced asthma diagnosis. And by the time he broke bones in his finger and elbow, and tore a ligament in his other elbow, all costing him much of his first two wrestling seasons at Lutheran High School, Micho wondered if it would ever stop.

“I kept thinking: ‘What is up? This is not right.’ But, you go through stuff like that for a reason,” he said. “Whenever I thought things were tough, I could always remember what I’d already been through.”

Whatever he faced, he conquered.

A strict regimen with a very organized lifestyle helped to curb the problems associated with his ADD

He found a high-altitude breathing mask that allowed him to train through his asthma.

And he has since driven himself to be “the one out there who is always in the best shape of anyone,” which he believes has kept him injury-free for his final two years of high school sports.

“He’s turned into the most disciplined person that me or his father have ever known,” his mother, Sindy Micho, said. “Once he got serious about wrestling, he’s been very regimented and very organized with his training, with his schoolwork, with everything in his life.”

Because of it all, Micho went on to win the school’s second state wrestling title as a senior in February. Seconds after the victory, he collapsed in his coach’s arms and passed out from an asthma attack.

“Hard work and practice works, in anything you do. I just don’t accept average anymore,” Micho said. “When I fell into my coach’s arms, I had made it. Before then, there was no way I was going to let that slip away.”

On Monday night Micho signed a letter of intent to wrestle for the Colorado School of Mines, one of the few strictly engineering schools in the country that also has a wrestling program. Micho will graduate from Lutheran summa cum laude and will give a speech at his graduation.

Then next fall he’ll venture west, and begin the next phase of his life.

While he admits he “fears the unknown,” and is a little nervous about what will come next, he also has a quiet confidence that may have never been there before he discovered wrestling.

“I know I can handle any adversity that comes my way now,” Micho said. “I’m nervous, sure, but I’m really excited to move on to bigger and better things. I’m confident I can make it through anything.”